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glass_carousel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Slavery, and Torture
Moderate: Death, Sexual harassment, and War
stick2theplan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I enjoyed this book and will probably read the sequel, but it’s not without its flaws. Foundryside required me to actively suspend my disbelief and hold it at bay. My foes in this task included an ancient, sentient key , whose anachronistic manner of speaking most closely resembled the “hello, fellow kids” meme, and a magic system that made less sense the more it was explained. And it was explained a lot.
Once I forced myself not to think too hard about it, I did enjoy Foundryside for what it is: a heist novel. The plot itself was solid and the pacing was good, though the ending felt a little abrupt. The book was laden with twists and reveals, some of which were very well executed. I also found the lore interesting. Because none of the POV characters understood the lore, it didn’t suffer from the over-explaining that hindered the magic/technology of the present.
As for the characters, they were mostly likable but satisfyingly complex. There was appreciable, earned growth from all the secondary characters. I think I was most underwhelmed with the main character’s arc. I’d like to have seen more of her development manifest throughout the novel; it was sort of spelled out for her by a literal deus ex machina. So much telling, not enough showing in this book. Still, the characters did feel fleshed out. The tropey stock characters were few and far between. That said, Bennet uses the antagonist-to-ally bait and switch one time too many for the eventual antagonist reveal to have much shock value.
At the end of the day, this is still a novel I’ll recommend to my friends.
Once I forced myself not to think too hard about it, I did enjoy Foundryside for what it is: a heist novel. The plot itself was solid and the pacing was good, though the ending felt a little abrupt. The book was laden with twists and reveals, some of which were very well executed. I also found the lore interesting. Because none of the POV characters understood the lore, it didn’t suffer from the over-explaining that hindered the magic/technology of the present.
As for the characters, they were mostly likable but satisfyingly complex. There was appreciable, earned growth from all the secondary characters. I think I was most underwhelmed with the main character’s arc. I’d like to have seen more of her development manifest throughout the novel; it was sort of spelled out for her by a literal deus ex machina. So much telling, not enough showing in this book. Still, the characters did feel fleshed out. The tropey stock characters were few and far between. That said, Bennet uses the antagonist-to-ally bait and switch one time too many for the eventual antagonist reveal to have much shock value.
At the end of the day, this is still a novel I’ll recommend to my friends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Vomit, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Car accident
vickie0326's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Medical trauma, and War
opalmars's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Oh, this was FUN!!!!!!!!!!! It’s been a while since I’ve been this enthralled by a book series, especially a high fantasy one. Interesting magic system, great characters, a HEIST??!?!? What more could you ask for? 🤩🤩🤩
The world building was extremely easy to understand. The magic system consists of scriving – writing specific codes into objects to make them do things that would normally be impossible. It’s a surprisingly simple magic system, but it has so many possibilities! I really enjoyed the way the author utilized this simple concept, and how he managed to do so much with it. I also love how academic and intellectual it all felt; it’s interesting to see a magic system that isn’t really about magic at all, but about studying and comprehending codes and ancient alphabets; anyone can do “magic” in this world, they just have to study enough.
The MC, Sancia, is a thief, and a damn good one, because she has the unique ability to touch objects and fully understand what they’re scrived to do; she can basically hear the objects “thoughts”. Sancia’s powers were extremely interesting, and finding out where they came from was… a lot. 😨 I especially appreciated seeing her internal struggle with her freedom. I reeeeally liked following Sancia, and I think she was a great MC! She’s so strong and cunning, but also fun and empathetic. Her desire for companionship felt so real, and I loved seeing her grow closer with Clef. 🥺
Sancia gets caught up in a bunch of problems, and long story short, she ends up having to pull off a VERY DANGEROUS heist, that is also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because the whole city (or maybe the whole world) could be affected if she can’t pull it off. 🫣
This heist was SUUUPER intense, and I loved every little step of this adventure, especially how Sancia ended up teaming up with all of the other characters in the book! This was kind of found-family, except it was more like… *forced*-family, because none of them really wanted to work together, but they kind of had to lmfao 💀. Seeing them bickering, hiding secrets, and then, slowly, starting to trust each other, was really nice. I also liked how bizarre this group was lol. Sometimes, a found family is a classist mad scholar, his brilliant (lesbian) apprentice, an overtly moral veteran from a noble house with a hero complex, a thief with impossible powers, and a talking key, and I think that’s beautiful. 🫶🏻
Gregor (the noble veteran) was a really interesting character, too. I enjoyed seeing the duality between his moral integrity and his privilege; I think it was all really well explored (and I appreciated whenever Sancia called him out on his privilege).Finding out that Ofelia had scrived Gregor, and that Sancia was actually NOT the 1st scrived human, was WILD!!! 😨😨 😨 I really enjoyed seeing Gregor fight against her orders, and seeing his morality and empathy “win” in the end.
The villains were also extremely well written! I didn’t really see them coming, though there were definitely clues and foreshadowing! These villains didn’t come out of nowhere, and they had such good motives!Tomas just wanted more power and money, which isn’t unheard of. Ofelia also testing on humans wasn’t entirely surprising, but hearing she did the same to her SON??? 😰 It made sense, though, given her backstory! And Estelle?! She was definitely a bit crazy, but honestly?? I could sympathize with her! All of these villains felt SO REALISTIC! Their actions, while reprehensible, made so much sense, and you could even sympathize with some of their motives! They were very well-developed!
As the story progressed, we learned more and more about this world’s lore, which was *really* interesting. This book has a full, satisfying arc, but definitely leaves the story open for continuation, especially now that we have more mysteries to solve, so I’m really excited about the sequels!
I think my only negative point would be the romance. I don’t think it was very well developed, and I wish the characters had interacted more before showing attraction to each other. The romance was a minimal point in the story, so it didn’t really affect much of it, but I wish it’d been better built up.
But, overall, I think this book was great! It was action-packed and fast-paced, and the characters, magic system and world were great! I also really loved the audiobook, and the different voices the narrator did for each character definitely elevated the story, for me! If you enjoy heist stories, I definitely recommend this one!
I’m lowkey sad that this series doesn’t have any fandom 😭. There’s like… 3 pieces of fanart and 10 tumblr text posts about it… I’m SAD! This book desserves MORE ATTENTION!!! It deserves memes! Official character cards! Fanart! A beautiful map! PLEASE! 😭🙏🏻
The world building was extremely easy to understand. The magic system consists of scriving – writing specific codes into objects to make them do things that would normally be impossible. It’s a surprisingly simple magic system, but it has so many possibilities! I really enjoyed the way the author utilized this simple concept, and how he managed to do so much with it. I also love how academic and intellectual it all felt; it’s interesting to see a magic system that isn’t really about magic at all, but about studying and comprehending codes and ancient alphabets; anyone can do “magic” in this world, they just have to study enough.
The MC, Sancia, is a thief, and a damn good one, because she has the unique ability to touch objects and fully understand what they’re scrived to do; she can basically hear the objects “thoughts”. Sancia’s powers were extremely interesting, and finding out where they came from was… a lot. 😨 I especially appreciated seeing her internal struggle with her freedom. I reeeeally liked following Sancia, and I think she was a great MC! She’s so strong and cunning, but also fun and empathetic. Her desire for companionship felt so real, and I loved seeing her grow closer with Clef. 🥺
Sancia gets caught up in a bunch of problems, and long story short, she ends up having to pull off a VERY DANGEROUS heist, that is also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because the whole city (or maybe the whole world) could be affected if she can’t pull it off. 🫣
This heist was SUUUPER intense, and I loved every little step of this adventure, especially how Sancia ended up teaming up with all of the other characters in the book! This was kind of found-family, except it was more like… *forced*-family, because none of them really wanted to work together, but they kind of had to lmfao 💀. Seeing them bickering, hiding secrets, and then, slowly, starting to trust each other, was really nice. I also liked how bizarre this group was lol. Sometimes, a found family is a classist mad scholar, his brilliant (lesbian) apprentice, an overtly moral veteran from a noble house with a hero complex, a thief with impossible powers, and a talking key, and I think that’s beautiful. 🫶🏻
Gregor (the noble veteran) was a really interesting character, too. I enjoyed seeing the duality between his moral integrity and his privilege; I think it was all really well explored (and I appreciated whenever Sancia called him out on his privilege).
The villains were also extremely well written! I didn’t really see them coming, though there were definitely clues and foreshadowing! These villains didn’t come out of nowhere, and they had such good motives!
As the story progressed, we learned more and more about this world’s lore, which was *really* interesting. This book has a full, satisfying arc, but definitely leaves the story open for continuation, especially now that we have more mysteries to solve, so I’m really excited about the sequels!
I think my only negative point would be the romance. I don’t think it was very well developed, and I wish the characters had interacted more before showing attraction to each other. The romance was a minimal point in the story, so it didn’t really affect much of it, but I wish it’d been better built up.
But, overall, I think this book was great! It was action-packed and fast-paced, and the characters, magic system and world were great! I also really loved the audiobook, and the different voices the narrator did for each character definitely elevated the story, for me! If you enjoy heist stories, I definitely recommend this one!
I’m lowkey sad that this series doesn’t have any fandom 😭. There’s like… 3 pieces of fanart and 10 tumblr text posts about it… I’m SAD! This book desserves MORE ATTENTION!!! It deserves memes! Official character cards! Fanart! A beautiful map! PLEASE! 😭🙏🏻
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Vomit, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, and War
2thicc4this's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Extremely fascinating concept for magic, cool capitalist dystopia, and few amazing main characters. Most other characters, including bad guys, are cartoonish and over the top in way that detracts from the story. Much of the dialogue is also pretty bad. Some attempts at humor hit, but most don’t. Overall a thrilling and fun book with fun adventures and a few excellent characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War
ashley_mrose530's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is such a good book and I'm really excited for this series. I loved the characters and the magic system and world building was so good. I think Cleff was my favorite character but they were all still really good.
I will say that there was something off-putting to me at first. I'm not entirely sure what it was but it had something to do with the voice whether it was the voice of the main character or the writing style or if it was the actual voice of the narrator, I'm not sure. But I was able to get used to it and get over it after a little bit.
I also didn't like the multiple threats of SA in this book. It seemed like every time the main character was in danger, she was also being threatened with rape. It happened like at least three times that I remember for sure and probably more than that and it was just really unnecessary. Like we get it, they're really bad men, but we don't need that referenced every time she's alone with one of them. It was frustrating and could be very triggering so be wary of that.
But other than those two things, I enjoyed this first book in the series. I thought the magic system was so interesting even though learning it did take some time and sometimes I still didn't understand how they were programming things and its intricacies - like sometimes it had to do with math and I was just lost haha - but I was able to understand it overall and in general so it didn't bother me too much.
I can't wait to read the rest of the series but I don't think my Libby has them so we'll see when that is.
I will say that there was something off-putting to me at first. I'm not entirely sure what it was but it had something to do with the voice whether it was the voice of the main character or the writing style or if it was the actual voice of the narrator, I'm not sure. But I was able to get used to it and get over it after a little bit.
I also didn't like the multiple threats of SA in this book. It seemed like every time the main character was in danger, she was also being threatened with rape. It happened like at least three times that I remember for sure and probably more than that and it was just really unnecessary. Like we get it, they're really bad men, but we don't need that referenced every time she's alone with one of them. It was frustrating and could be very triggering so be wary of that.
But other than those two things, I enjoyed this first book in the series. I thought the magic system was so interesting even though learning it did take some time and sometimes I still didn't understand how they were programming things and its intricacies - like sometimes it had to do with math and I was just lost haha - but I was able to understand it overall and in general so it didn't bother me too much.
I can't wait to read the rest of the series but I don't think my Libby has them so we'll see when that is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, and Trafficking
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
Minor: Misogyny and War
thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was a fun read that I had a really good time with. However, I found the worldbuilding to be quite clunky and the plot is riddled with convenience. So many times in this book handy-dandy pieces of lore are just revealed out of nowhere so that the characters can escape certain death, or so that a difficult thing that needs doing can be done quickly, and these little tidbits where never foreshadowed or hinted at in any way beforehand. I also feel that, though I enjoyed the characters and their relationships, things develop way too fast. You have these people who are coming from completely opposite circumstance and who have every reason to distrust each other, and it takes them exactly 10 minutes to be willing to risk life and limb for each other/on each others word. Still, as I said, I did have a good time, and I will be continuing the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War
Moderate: Vomit and Cannibalism
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent
laraloops's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Very cool premise and world building throughout, the pacing is also great and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I found all the characters memorable, especially the main characters and the writing for them was funny as well. The themes of capitalism were well woven into the story and there were some amazing lines regarding the dehumanization that is integral to the system of capitalism. There are some triggers for this novel to keep an eye on if you are affected by anything in particular.
I do appreciate a novel that tears down the whole "we just need more female CEO's" concept. The ultimate antagonist of the novel is a woman who has gone through abuse but it very much does not justify her actions.
Having a novel that focuses on dehumanization and makes it part of the magic system was very very interesting to me. I especially like it when people make magic systems that are not only cool but are part of the fictional world and reflect on issues in our own world.
The overall descriptions of the magic/world were very intriguing to me and I am very excited to continue to read this trilogy and see what other revelations are in store.
Having a novel that focuses on dehumanization and makes it part of the magic system was very very interesting to me. I especially like it when people make magic systems that are not only cool but are part of the fictional world and reflect on issues in our own world.
The overall descriptions of the magic/world were very intriguing to me and I am very excited to continue to read this trilogy and see what other revelations are in store.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: War
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content
hybridhavoc's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I find myself kind of genuinely surprised at the amount of praise that has been showered on this book. About halfway through the book I was willing to write off a lot of the issues I had with it as being the result of a first-time author. Unfortunately that is not the case.
My largest issue with the book is that the author seems very taken with their magic system and everything else seems to mostly be in service to that. Most of the characters seem flat and inconsistent; knowledge of the world is info-dumped on us very abruptly; dialogue is often to-the-point in a way that feels incredibly unnatural and isn't even necessary. Sometimes the book just skips over what should be important dialogue. Need to convince this character to betray their own family? "He told her only what she needed to hear." That's not a conversation, that's a cop-out.
I know that the trend for modern fantasy is all about hard magic systems, and it seems like that is maybe where the love for this book comes from. After all, it does have what seems to be a clever magic system. I hesitate to call it a hard magic system though, as there are almost no actual details provided, and very little in the way of hard boundaries set. That makes sense, given that the magic system is basically programming, and when you're programming reality there aren't many boundaries beyond your knowledge and imagination. But by its very nature, then, I can't view this as a hard magic system. There is no point at which the author can't simply say "Sure they're in a pickle right now, but what's this? They just got cleverer and came up with a new bit of programming."
I think the part of the book that had me eye-rolling the hardest has to be the villains. They are absolute caricatures, the flattest of flat characters. I suspect that this, at least, gets better in future books in the series. But I honestly can't know for certain because almost none of the characters are consistent in this book.
There is more positive than negative in Foundryside, but I don't think there's enough positive for me to keep going with the series.
My largest issue with the book is that the author seems very taken with their magic system and everything else seems to mostly be in service to that. Most of the characters seem flat and inconsistent; knowledge of the world is info-dumped on us very abruptly; dialogue is often to-the-point in a way that feels incredibly unnatural and isn't even necessary. Sometimes the book just skips over what should be important dialogue. Need to convince this character to betray their own family? "He told her only what she needed to hear." That's not a conversation, that's a cop-out.
I know that the trend for modern fantasy is all about hard magic systems, and it seems like that is maybe where the love for this book comes from. After all, it does have what seems to be a clever magic system. I hesitate to call it a hard magic system though, as there are almost no actual details provided, and very little in the way of hard boundaries set. That makes sense, given that the magic system is basically programming, and when you're programming reality there aren't many boundaries beyond your knowledge and imagination. But by its very nature, then, I can't view this as a hard magic system. There is no point at which the author can't simply say "Sure they're in a pickle right now, but what's this? They just got cleverer and came up with a new bit of programming."
I think the part of the book that had me eye-rolling the hardest has to be the villains. They are absolute caricatures, the flattest of flat characters. I suspect that this, at least, gets better in future books in the series. But I honestly can't know for certain because almost none of the characters are consistent in this book.
There is more positive than negative in Foundryside, but I don't think there's enough positive for me to keep going with the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, and Medical trauma
Moderate: War and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
raneyak's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Really enjoyed it! Good world building and an interesting magic system. Points docked for the lackluster romance buildup and overuse of the word “scrumming”.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual content, Vomit, and War